EMERSON, Ga. – Gamers Baseball 15u Blue has certainly been
living up to their name, having won five games in the 15u WWBA National Championship,
with three of those games being decided by two runs or less. That tough
mentality on all sides of the ball has them sitting in the top of their pool
with two games left to play.
“I think that they’ve shown me just the mental toughness and
grit, and that’s kind of been our theme, that’s the Gamers’ theme for year,”
said head coach Nick Aboussie. “Our grit that we’ve instilled in them, that
they’re willing to grind out and play a team baseball game, and if we have a
little adversity, that we can bounce back to it right away.”
Pitching has been the theme for the Chesterfield, Mo.-based
Gamers, who have allowed only 13 runs over the five pool games. They have
notched two shutouts and have held other teams to one run or less four times.
Although the arms are not the hardest throwing, having only 26 strikeouts in 32
1/3 innings, they have shown an ability to pitch, often getting ahead of
hitters. What is more impressive is that they are performing with little margin
for error, often pitching in close games. Aboussie said that the mindset of getting
ahead with the first pitch has been a key to their success on the mound.
“They’re getting themselves into counts to where they’re
able to throw a breaking pitch for a strike or throw a fastball off the plate
to get somebody to chase, and when that happens, that’s something that’s real
cool because that’s us pitching instead of us just throwing trying to hit a
gun,” Aboussie said.
Pitching to contact is only effective if a team possesses a
defense that can catch the ball, and that is the case for this team, who have
been clean in the field all tournament.
“The defense also, that’s helped out tremendously because I
think we’ve turned this tournament maybe six or seven double plays, so when you
get that type of defensive help that makes our pitching staff look even better,
so now it becomes even more of a team game, and that’s what we’re about,”
Aboussie said.
Aboussie has methodically used his pitching staff, not using
one guy for the whole game, rather using a mix of two or three guys to keep the
staff fresh. This method will give them versatility if they make bracket play. He
said that using his pitching in that way allows them to stay engaged, knowing
that they can enter a ball game instead of having to wait multiple days to
pitch again.
Offensively, the bats of the Gamers have grinded out just
enough runs to support the pitching staff, and through the first four games have
had to do the little things right because of the lack of run scoring. Cade Hohl
was a main contributor to what offense they did have, hitting .455 with a
double, an RBI and a stolen base through four games.
“He’s a guy that attacks the baseball early, especially in
the count as far as fastballs are concerned,” Aboussie said. “That’s our big
thing, we want guys hunting fastballs, especially early in the count, to do
damage with and that’s one thing that he definitely has done.”
“Hitting the first pitch fastball, that’s what I’ve been
looking for, and just driving the ball up the middle,” said Hohl on his
approach.
His teammates would follow suit and get going on Monday
morning by shifting to the approach that Hohl had been using for his success.
The change rewrote the offensive story for the Gamers in this tournament, scoring
seven runs against the Zoned RedHawks Elite, the most that they have scored in
a game this tournament.
“I think offensively, early in the ball game we decided that
we were going to adjust and hit the fastball hard,” Aboussie said. “Up until
this point, we had really hit the baseball well. The last three games before
this we hadn’t offensively taken control. We decided to really stay sideways,
get through right center field gap for our righthanded hitters, oppo hard on
the ground, and that kind of changed our approach throughout the course of the
early part of that ball game.”
Cameron Macon led off the game with a single up the middle
on the second pitch of the game, but was promptly caught stealing after he over
slid second base. With two outs in the inning, Ty Stauss tripled to the
left-center field gap, with the ball leaving the bat at 86.4 mph. He would be
stranded at third, but that would be a sign of an offensive outbreak for the
Gamers.
Kyle Miller deposited a 2-0 fastball into left field for a
leadoff single in the top of the second inning and was followed up by an Alex
Logusch infield single to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Sam
Ladd would single home Miller on a line drive to center field, giving the
Gamers an early 1-0 lead. Logusch would later score on a wild pitch to add
another run to the scoreboard.
“Seeing fastballs early, jumping on fastballs early in the
count and then adjusting off-speed, so it worked pretty well today,” Logusch
said. “I think we were more aggressive in the count early. Seeing fastballs and
hitting it, going the other way a lot more, driving the ball, so it was good.”
More would come from the newfound aggressiveness of the
lineup in the fourth inning, sending 11 men to the plate, while pushing four
across to score. The inning started with three straight singles by Patrick
Clohisy, Miller and Logusch, the latter plating Clohisy on a single. Anthony
Lindwedel would be hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score one run, and
then Griffin Baur followed him with an RBI single. Macon would walk home a run three
batters later to cap off the four-run inning.
They would tack on one more in the seventh, but the previous
six were plenty for starter Levi Ebersoldt. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Ebersoldt allowed
four hits and a walk over 4 1/3 innings, while giving up no runs. It was the righty’s
second appearance of the tournament, throwing four innings of three-hit ball,
while fanning two batters against Top Tier Roos 15u National on Friday. He
would induce weak contact and keep hitters off balance all morning, garnering
four infield popups, while setting down seven hitters on three pitches or less.
“I was feeling pretty good, fastball was a little off [in
the bullpen], but when I got on the mound I fixed it and everything worked,”
Ebersoldt said. “Just kept my fastball low, got groundballs, changeup got a
couple flyballs in key spots, just threw strikes.”
The Gamers look to continue their pitching success, new hitting
approach and gritty gameplay into Tuesday when they face the East Coast Sox
Select, who are 4-0 in the pool and currently a half game behind the Gamers for
the pool lead. The team knows the importance of this game, which can make or
break their playoff hopes.
“Again, you’re taking it as it goes. The idea is that they
are going to be a talented ball club,” Aboussie said. “We’re excited to get the
opportunity to play against another club like that and hopefully we show up, we
play hard, we do what we’re capable of like we have the last couple of days and
we have some success.”